Editing Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (section)

== Early studies ==
Ibn ʿAbd-al-Wahhab's early education was taught by his father,<ref name="ReferenceB"/> and consisted of learning the [[Quran]] by heart and studying a rudimentary level of [[Hanbali]] [[Fiqh|jurisprudence]] and [[Aqidah|Islamic theology]] as outlined in the works of [[Ibn Qudamah]] (d. 1223), one of the most influential medieval representatives of the Hanbali school, whose works were regarded "as having great authority" in the Najd.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> The affirmation of [[Wali|Islamic sainthood]] and the ability of saints to perform miracles (''[[karamat]]'') by the grace of God had become a major aspect of [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslim]] belief throughout the [[Islamic world]], being agreed-upon by majority of the classical Islamic scholars.<ref>Al-Ashʿarī, ''al-Ibāna ʿan uṣūl al-diyāna'', ed. Fawqiyya Ḥusayn Maḥmūd (Cairo: Dār al-Anṣār, 1397/1977), 31, 33: "It is possible for God to single out the righteous (''ṣāliḥīn'') by making signs (''āyāt'') appear at their hands".</ref><ref>Al-Ṭaḥāwī, ''Matn al-ʿaqīda al-ṭaḥāwiyya'', ed. Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1398/1978), 59: "[W]e believe in what has come via sound transmission through trustworthy narrators (''ṣaḥḥa ʿan al-thiqāt min ruwātihim'') from among their [the saints'] miracles".</ref><ref>Ibn Qudamah, cited in Ahmet T. Karamustafa, ''Sufism: The Formative Period'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 132).</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Radtke|first1=B.|last2=Lory |first2=P.|last3=Zarcone |first3=Th. |last4=DeWeese |first4=D. |last5=Gaborieau |first5=M. |last6=Denny |first6=F. M. |last7=Aubin |first7=Françoise |last8=Hunwick |first8=J. O.|last9=Mchugh |first9=N. |title=Walī |orig-date=1993 |year=2012 |editor1-last=Bearman |editor1-first=P. J. |editor1-link=Peri Bearman |editor2-last=Bianquis |editor2-first=Th. |editor2-link=Thierry Bianquis |editor3-last=Bosworth |editor3-first=C. E. |editor3-link=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |editor4-last=van Donzel |editor4-first=E. J. |editor4-link=Emeri Johannes van Donzel |editor5-last=Heinrichs |editor5-first=W. P.|editor5-link=Wolfhart Heinrichs |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam#2nd edition, EI2|Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition]] |volume=11 |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_1335 |isbn=978-90-04-16121-4}}</ref> Ibn ʿAbd-al-Wahhab had encountered various excessive beliefs and practices associated with saint-veneration and saint-cults which were prevalent in his area. During that era, various supernatural rituals and beliefs associated with [[Magic (supernatural)|magic]], [[superstition]]s, [[occultism]], [[numerology]], etc. had become predominant across numerous towns and villages of [[Arabian Peninsula]]. He probably chose to leave Najd and look elsewhere for studies to see if such beliefs and rituals were as popular in the neighboring places of the Muslim world or the possibility that his home town offered inadequate educational resources. Even today, the reasoning for why he left Najd is unclear.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="Samin 1–26">{{Cite journal |last=Samin |first=Nadav |date=18 February 2022 |title=Poetry, Magic, and the Formation of Wahhabism |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/jesh/65/1-2/article-p1_1.xml |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |volume=65 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1163/15685209-12341561 |s2cid=247162037 |via=Brill}}</ref>